Coaxial cable television systems have been in widespread use for many years and extensive networks have been developed. The extensive and complex networks are often difficult for a cable operator to manage and monitor. A typical cable network generally contains a headend which is usually connected to several nodes which provide access to an IP or ISPN network. The headend also interfaces with a cable modem termination system (CMTS) which typically contains several receivers, each receiver typically connects to several nodes each of which connect to several network elements, such as modems, MTA (media terminal adaptors) and set top boxes of many subscribers, e.g., a single receiver may be connected to hundreds of network elements.
The standard architecture for an HFC cable plant is a tree and branch structure where terminal network elements (MTA, cable modem, set top box, etc.) reside on various optical nodes. Nodes may be combined and serviced by common components at the headend. Typically, the method for tracking which terminal devices are attached to which optical node is a manual process by which as the customer services are enabled, the operator manually resolves (via out of date and often inaccurate maps which were also manually entered and prone to the shortcomings of human data entry) the specific node that the user is attached to and enters this into the customer management database.
Information of the connections to a node is valuable to resolving physical layer communications issues, performing periodic HFC plant maintenance, and planning future service expansions. However, when the data is inaccurate, it can often lead to misdiagnosis of issues, excessive costs associated with maintenance, and prolonged new deployments which jeopardize customer expectations. In addition, as communication traffic increases or new services are deployed the need to understand the loading of individual nodes becomes important, particularly if the number of users on each node must be reallocated, e.g. to split the user loads on a node.